The Community Spotlight - 03/14/2014

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! It's hard to fathom, but it has been two years since Giant Bomb was acquired by CBSi. Just think...two years ago Jeff introduced us to Big Bo, creepy right? There's no real going about it--the last two years have been rough. Many users have left us, and unfortunately we lost Ryan, a figurehead and undeniable tour de force on the site. Through all of this we are still here, and while this is not a perfect community it has continued to exist as one. Time and time again I have been humbled by the creativity and sincerity of you, my community. Such events have continually quashed whatever self doubts that may have develop from me being a moderator. For this I thank you, from the bottom of my heart I want you to know that your kindness is greatly appreciated.

With that please note that this week is GDC, so expect late night live streams filled to the brim with guest speakers. For those wondering Jeff has worked tirelessly to book one, @patrickklepek to appear on a live stream to discuss the new Yoshi's Island game.

Clips of the Week

@theburlaplemur decided to dedicate his latest Bitseize Bomb video entirely on the Amped 3 Quick Look, better known as "The Forgotten Endurance Run." @turboman also has a new episode of his Best of Giant Bomb series which features Vinny as a forklift as well as a creepy dude with AR Cards. Finally @wallofbricks has the final "Supercut" which compiles all of his previous video related to Brad's Breaking Brad for Demon's Souls plus plenty scenes from the end of the series.

Community Activities

Drangleic Explorer Society: Compiling GB's DS2 Exploration - Help "Chart" and Chronicle All of the Goodies in Dark Souls II Over Here!

Best of Blogs

Gamer_152 attempts to explain the appeal of watching Twitch play Pokemon and why it's more fun than it has any right to be. Aurahack has a guide on why watching grown men wasting millions of dollars while burning fossil fuels (F1 Racing) is worth your time. Video_Game_King has started his effort to "party all the time" with Sonic Shuffle and Mario Party Advance. FluxWavez wrote about why he think Bravely Default shits the bed so to speak in its latter half. MikeLemmer has started a character log of his adventures in Dark Souls II and starts with the first boss battle. GrantHeaslip extrapolates why he's walking away from Persona 3 despite putting in 70+ hours in it and never having finished it. YukoAsho equivocates her disgust with conspiracy theories about his this generation of consoles will be the last. ILikePopCans played a smorgasbord of games this week ranging from Rsien 2 and Fire Emblem which would make Video_Game_King proud. MooseyMcMan returns to Giant Bomb by blogging about his thoughts on Strider and Tomb Raiders as reboots and self contained games. Shivoa decided to settle the Bombcast's confusion over the 720p vs. 1080i/p debate and other resolution controversies. halomaste19 wrote two blogs, the first asking where all the good dinosaur video games are, and the second contemplates if cut scenes prove how behind games are in terms of telling stories. thatpinguino mulls over what can be gained from understanding our play styles and gaming preferences. FLStyle has the massive event list and itinerary for the fighting game event, Final Round 17. dankempster continued his play-through of Pokemon FireRed, and FinalDasa detailed his attempt to finish up the Infamous franchise up to this point in preparation of Second Son. Yummylee elucidates on why he doesn't like Lone Survivor, despite being a huge fan of the survival horror genre. MMMman takes a humorous bent in using XCOM Declassified as a case example on how game design cannot get over chest high walls. Finally Pabba has a webcomic that exemplifies his experiences with Ben There, Dan That

Fantastic Forums

As to be expected we have a bunch of threads pertaining to Demon's Souls and the newly released Dark Souls II. Humanity provided the artwork that I used for the banner. wallofbricks has compiled all of his "Best of videos..." for Brad's foray into Demon's Souls into one video plus some clips of his ultimate victory. On top of that feel free to share your live stats, tips/tricks, and first death in Dark Souls II. Finally discuss if you have ever been offended from playing a game, and feel free to join the new Fantasy Formula 1 League.

It's been a few years since I've been on here - I was one of the users that signed up on day one. I've gotta admit, that bit about 'many users have left us' was a bit depressing. But it's good to see that there's still a good community here. And hey, this is still Giant Bomb! The best website dedicated to gaming, period.

For clarity, I don't think ZP meant that the size of the user base has decreased. In fact, I think quite the opposite has happened in the past two years especially in terms of subscriber numbers. He was more referring to specific notable members, in particular some notable bloggers, that have chosen to stop participating in the community.

I didn't realize there was a large impact from the sale on GB. I mainly saw it through Screened's eyes. Hopefully now I can spend a little more time on GB and continue to blog or edit the wiki.

As @chaser324 has pointed out my words have been a bit misinterpreted. My intent was to point out that some users have simply moved on to other things (like one time Screened mod Systech who was my predecessor). This is inevitable on any website, but it is something that you look back on and hope you can reverse.

Giant Bomb's overall user base has grown steadily since the CBSi acquisition, that and the amount of premium video content has dramatically increased. That all said you can't help but feel a bit nostalgic about the past.

I wrote this thing about Bravely Default and apparently it didn't want to post to the forums.

I've been getting that problem too. Game-specific boards don't work, but the main boards, do. Sort of. The site's glitched up today, for some reason. (This probably means you won't see this message, but whatever.)